Web Hosting

[Minor League Skilz]

I was looking to start my first website. I do some fund raising stuff and I would like to keep track of events, post pictures, accept email and maybe even a simple message board. I have been searching for awhile but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. I have some minimal HTML skills so I would probably be better off with a site that would walk me through the basics. I catch on pretty fast though. It really should not get more than a few thousand hits in a year. I was looking for something more than a facebook or myspace page. I plan on buying a domain too.

I would be willing to keep it in the under $10 per month range.

I was looking at godaddy, network solutions, glob@t.com, and a few others. Is a pay site overkill for my needs? Suggestions?

[The Artful Dodger]

I would look into a web host like InMotion or Bluehost, which provides some semi-user-friendly tools to help build your site. I say "semi" because the tools they have tend to make it easier or more convenient for programmers at almost any skill level to deploy something quick. In short, the tools themselves don't provide much hand-holding in terms of trying to make something more dynamic (i.e. events, message board).

If I were you, I'd look at Widgetbox. They provide web applications that could make your site more dynamic with little to no added programming involved. This would be ideal for something like an events calendar or a picture board.

There's also good open source stuff out there as well, as long as you know where to look. If you need a mailer program that sends automatic event messages or newsletters, there should be mailer programs out there based on the PHP language. If you need a message board, I'd look into Phorum, a free open-source message board program that you can install in a few steps, with just the configuration to worry about. Like most open source, you can customize the code to your billing but it's sufficient enough as-is to launch.

[Minor League Skilz]

Thanks. I read some things I liked about Bluehost but then I stumbled upon a few unhappy user reviews. But I seem to find good and bad reviews for each service so I can't get hung up on that.

I appreciate the input.

[The Artful Dodger]

InMotion usually gets good reviews but in all reality, the web hosts provide just about the same services, some offering better support at some services than others. For example, Bluehost has a built-in Ruby on Rails support module whereas InMotion doesn't but InMotion has quality customer support in how prompt they can respond to customer issues (they don't give great answers either though). It really depends on what you need and of course, each host has its own package offerings as well.

Have you considered creating a blog and just building from there? I think given the ease of which to set up a blog that's ready to go coupled with a few widgets from Widgetbox, it's a good starting point to see if you really need something you need more control over.

Another thing I'd recommend is Drupal. Again, it's open source and has a solid array of content management features, as well as an avid community that develops them. There's little to no programming involved but it does help if you pick up a little PHP here and there.

[Minor League Skilz]

Thanks for the input, but why are you responding to a 3 year old thread?